Train to Lyon, France, tram to the Saint Exupéry Aéroport with sandwiches from Raphael, the bakery in Gland, for breakfast, then finally checking in and waiting on the floor in front of the gate for Easyjet flight to Prague. PRAGUE! Since I was little, I have been fascinated by this place, it seemed so mysterious and romantic in a sad, dark way from the books I had read. The first thing we do when we land in Prague is hop on a bus, without buying a ticket? through the residential outskirts into the city, trying to track our progress on the map we found in the airport, written in Czech. When we reached the city, we had to find our way through buying a metro ticket, and found Czech people to be short and generally easily fed up with people who ask them questions. We got off the metro at the stop for our hostel, and walked right into a Saturday market. There was a booth with a woman making fresh potato chips, cutting them on this spiral spinny thing and then frying them in the deep fryer working double time next to her. We walked and walked, passed a Big Lebowski bowling alley, and eventually reached our hostel, which was extremely sketchy. After a bad first impression, we left our stuff and started exploring. Trying to get into the center of town (because we were in a very residential, out-of-the-way area), we wandered our way into a beautiful synagogue, the most beautiful, colorful building I think I may have ever seen, probably because it was just discretely wedged in between these dark Prague apartment buildings. We took free tram after free tram, to the National Theater, past Charles Bridge, and in the cold, windy gray weather with people walking purposefully and unsmilingly, the Prague of my imagination was suddenly a reality. But man it was cold. We wandered into the Old Town, which was overwhelmingly touristy with the same types of restaurants one after another; it was like the Latin Qartier in Paris. We finally stumbled across a café through a little doorway pushed back from the cobblestone alley, and had our first delicious dark Czech beer and goulash soup, with rye bread. What else do you need when it’s that cold and dreary? Next, we wandered our way to the National Opera house, to see if there were any cheap tickets available for the ballet, Cinderella, which was playing that night. Surprisingly, we bought tickets for about $20 USD in a box on the left side of a beautiful, gilded, red velvet opera house. It was a dream. The ballet was so beautiful, and the family of elderly Czech people whose box we were in were very sweet and equally touched by the show. After the show, we walked out in a daze onto the main place/street in the heart of the city, found a delicious sausage with horseradish and mustard and onions and bread, and then walked around for a bit. We found ourselves in the heart of the Old Town, with the big square and the clock tower, and were too overwhelmed by all of the things that we had done and seen just on our first day—remember this was our day of arrival—that we had to leave. No pictures, please.
Saturday market in Prague.
Synagogue.
Prague Castle and Charles Bridge.
The National Opera House!
When we woke up in our questionable hostel, we realized that it was clean enough, the people were nice, and we just had an unfortunate first impression. We found a cheap café for breakfast, then went to the National Museum, next to the National Opera House of our night before. The museum showed Prague’s proud history, most of the exhibits sounding like folklore of kings and princesses and ward and castles, a fairyland. I wandered through that exhibit like a child, reading the stories and staring at the replications of 15th century Czech people (sometimes scary). The building itself was so impressive, gilded with red carpets leading up the sweeping staircases, like the Opera House. There was also large archaeology, bird/animal, and mineral exhibits, so it was more like natural history, too. Next, we met an extended family friend of Olivia’s, a Czech woman who was very busy working on the film festival going on at the time, but who met us at the museum and drove us across the river, through Mala Strana (the neighborhood across the river), and up to the Prague Castle complex. There she left us, with a small box of chocolates (after saying that it was too bad we were so disorganized and did not ask her for suggestions on where to stay in Prague… typical response/attitude, we were realizing). We went into the complex, marveling at the ornateness of the cathedral, the old palace of Bohemian grandeur. We walked out of the complex, through a farm, and up to the neighborhood area on top of the Palace complex. There, we found a brewery/restaurant operated by a monastery. More delicious dark, homemade beer, and I had an incredible “beer soup” with cheese toast on top… however it may sound, it was the perfect complement to the chilly weather and the view of the church right outside the brewery, and the rest of Prague below. We found our way out of the monastery area, thanks to a young Czech boy whom we followed on a bus and then to the metro, and got back to Mala Strana. We later realized that had we turned the other way at the monastery, we would have walked right onto the main street in Mala Strana. Oh well, for the sake of adventure. We then crossed the river, and on the Charles Bridge there was a man playing the violin to a CD, playing a song that Dina, the pianist at my ballet school, had played for years and years and years. In the dark night in Prague, with the cold, people hurrying buy or standing to watch this man like we were, it was a strange moment of feeling outside of time and place, and full of unknown nostalgia. We got off the bridge, walked into the Old Town, and saw the big square and the clock tower the way it was meant to be seen.
Looking out over Prague from the Prague Castle.
Gates to the Prague Castle complex.
Beautiful stained glass windows inside the Prague Castle cathedral.
Prague Castle cathedral.
Back of the cathedral in the Prague Castle complex.
I miss doors like this.
Dark. Small farm below the Castle complex.
Clock in the Old Town.
The Charles Bridge and river at night-- National Theater in the back far right.
The next day, we woke up and took the tram across the river to a tiny café run by a Czech woman, and sat at the counter looking out at the street and the hill leading up to the park, people passing going to work. The woman gave us directions in a mix of English, Czech, and hand signals, then we re-crossed the river by the Charles Bridge, full of tourists and vendors, then we made our way to the old Jewish quarter/Jewish museums. This was the coolest museum—spread out over various synagogues throughout the area, including the old Jewish cemetery, it was a somber morning, but the synagogues were beautiful, and it was such a unique experience to walk though the town, the big street with all the expensive luxury brand stores, from synagogue to synagogue. We breaked for lunch in between the museums, a potato latke with cabbage and pork, and dark beer again—scary to look at, but amazing to eat. Then, we re-crossed the river to go to the Cathedral of St. Mikulase (St. Nickolas). Prague is known for its Baroque art and architecture, as well as its Bohemian art. But this cathedral was dripping, dripping with gold and marble and statues, ornate, too ornate. Literally drenched in the stuff. It was beautiful, but compared to the many many churches and cathedrals, the small church in Thun was more beautiful to me, times a million. We walked out of the cathedral, and found the Lennon Wall. This wall in Mala Strana is dedicated to John Lennon, graffitied over millions of times by passing visitors, people paying homage to Lennon, writing his own words over and over each other, leaving their names and personal favorite quotations. “We all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.” Later that night, we were wandering/shopping in Mala Strana, and found a dark, medieval-decorated brewery. We sat, having our last obscenely heavy Czech meal. As we were sitting at a large table, we eventually began talking with the two older Czech men who were sitting at the other end of the table. Through their broken English, we learned that the younger man was studying anthropology and the older one was his professor. We had an interesting, oftentimes hilarious time talking with them—the younger man had a dream to go to America and live with a southern, fundamental Christian family. He found out Olivia is from Georgia, and the stereotypes just went off the wall. He asked her what she thought she was doing with a barbarian non-believer who speaks Arabic-- I wasn’t really offended. They had been born around Prague, and gave us real Czech opinions.
One of the Synagogues of the museum complex in the old Jewish quarter of Prague.
The St. Nicholas Cathedral.
The Lennon Wall.
Tuesday—wake up, leave the hostel for the last time (hamdolah), make our way to the Baroque/Bohemian museum by the Prague Castle complex that we missed the other day. We saw a band with an accordion and stand up bass outside of the Castle complex while we were waiting for the museum to open. We stopped by a “potraviny”, a market, and bought delicious bread, disgusting cheese (not in Switzerland anymore), and a pastry for the road. One more pass over the Charles Bridge, and then onto the train to Berlin. The Czech and German countryside was idyllic and rural, and it was the most relaxing time we’d had so far. About 6 hours later, we got out in the Berlin Hautbanhof, the main station, and were immediately overwhelmed by its size. I felt like an ant, looking up at escalators and down at rails, and on each side at stores and markets and pretzel shops. We struggled to find the train/metro to take us to our hostel. About 40 minutes later, we were still looking for it… in the old East side of Berlin, after the sun had set. We thought this was going to be a repeat of the Prague experience, and were all prepared to find another hostel because it was too far out of the way. When we finally found it, it was large, clean, and the people were friendly—we were so surprised. After dropping out stuff off, we wandered around to find dinner, and found that we were in a very young and diverse neighborhood, Brooklyn-esque. We had Chinese for dinner, then a beer at a café/bar with dark wood and melting candles on each table, and a German man playing piano. We were almost the only ones in the bar, and the piano man soon realized that we didn’t speak German, so he just kept yelling, “Berlin!” What a great arrival. Before we went to sleep, we talked with the two Turkish girls in our room, who had arrived the day before. Around 6am we woke up to Irish boys coming back from their night, who couldn’t find their phone, then went back to sleep and woke up early.
The overwhelming Berlin Hauptbanhof (Main Train Station).
Bar in Berlin.
We woke up in our lovely clean beds, then walked to the bakery on the corner that some girls in the hostel had recommended. The woman who worked there was Turkish (there’s a lot of Turkish immigrants living in Berlin), and all of the pastries were fresh and fluffy and buttery and delicious, and the coffee was just what we needed to start the day. Then we walked and took the metro to Alexanderplatz, in the center of Berlin. We meant to go to the Brandenburg Gate, but got sidetracked for a few hours along the way. We looked at the big TV tower at Alexanderplatz, which is in the old East side and during the time when the city was partitioned was a huge eyesore to people living in West Berlin. We started our walk, and first inadvertent stop was Neptune’s Fountain. It was so elaborate and beautiful, a collage of statues of Neptune and women and fish and children. Next, we crossed the bridge and looked at the outside of the Berliner Dom, a huge church on the Museuminsel, or Museum Island. An island of museums. We walked around there too, through the yards and ogling the buildings. Then, we continued walking and found a sentry memorial, a memorial to victims of racism and fascism and other characteristics of the early and mid 20th century. We passed the University, which was having a book sale outside in the beautiful spring weather, then finally made it to the Brandenburg Gate. There, we watched Darth Vader and American and German soldiers taking pictures with people (kind of controversial), and tried to get our bearings. We broke down and bought a tourist book, the city is just too vast and packed with history and buildings and culture. We made our way to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum—I could have stayed there all day, they just documented everything about the beginning of the Wall, the controversies during its existence, and the ways people escaped from the East to the West side. The building was the same as it had been since the wall’s construction—the man living in the apartment at the time started amassing evidence of the wall’s issues and controversy, and it remained ever since. There was also a section on worldwide nonviolence and other revolutions during the 20th century. Wow, so cool.
Neptune's Fountain.
Berliner Dom, with the TV tower of Alexanderplatz in the background.
The Brandenburg Gate.
Checkpoint Charlie.
Old Wall remnants outside of the Checkpoint Charlie Museum.
We left the museum to go on a boat tour down the Spree River. There were a few elderly German couples on the boat, but one man became our personal English-speaking guide. He pointed out the Federal Belt, the Reighstag, Angela Merkel’s personal apartment, the point where we passed from West to East Berlin, and the East Side Gallery. He also pointed out all of the old warehouses with graffiti on the outside that have now been turned into clubs. After the boat tour, we went through Hackshermarkt, a fun Quincy Market-esque area, then walked back to the Berliner Dom, just missed the closing hour, so we laid out on the grass in front of it instead. Even though it is so industrial and busy, the river and the parks are beautiful in Berlin. The city is really incredible. We passed a woodcarving/pinnochio shop and looked at the dolls. Then back to our neighborhood for another dinner and bed.
Half of the Federal Belt complex, on the boat tour.
One of the old warehouses, graffitied, and now turned into a night club.
Bridge on the River Spree.
Hackshermarkt.
Bright and early the next morning, we went to our favorite bakery again then took the tram to the East Side Gallery, to walk along what we saw from the boat the day before. I really can’t explain the paintings on this wall. This is the longest part of the wall that remains, and after it fell it was painted over white, then artists from all over the world were invited to paint murals on it. It is truly incredible, and inspiring, and you can just feel how happy and joyous and thankful people were, from their paintings and the words written on the wall. Then, after the wall we went back to Hackshermarkt to visit the old Jewish cemetery; we saw a golden gilded synagogue from afar, and peeked in at a cathedral, and walked around this really cool part of the city. We ate lunch in a park on our way to the Berliner Dom, and finally went inside. The church was beautiful inside, the dome was so spacious, and there were elaborate gilded coffins of kings and queens of Prussia. Then below, there was a huge crypt of more elaborately carved coffins of the royal families. After we got out of the Dom, I felt like it was 6 o’clock at night, and was just so exhausted. All we had done was catching up with us. But still, we tried to see the Reichstag, but it was closed for entry, then saw some German soldiers practicing outside. We took a bus to the heart of the West side of Berlin, which is full of huge shopping complexes, the KDW is the biggest, and we went in, walked into Tiffany’s, then left. We stopped for “currywurst”—something I’m glad I tried once, but would never want to eat again. It was a hot dog cut up with ketchup and curry powder on top of it. “Globalization in your mouth”. We walked some more, shopped a bit, went into a really cool Lego store. Then we went back to Hackshermarkt, and walked through the actual market area. We found a really cool café/bar/restaurant/lounge/library thing, a huge old building walled with books where people sit on poufs on bleacher-type stairs. We wandered around the area, then went back to our neighborhood and walked around one last time at night.
Beginning of the East Side Gallery.
Synagogue near Hackershermarkt.
Reichstag.
Currywurst stand...
Hackshermarkt market square.
In the morning, we checked out of the hostel, went to our bakery one more time, then made our way to the area of the Hautbanhof, to go to the Hamburg Banhof, which is an old train station that has been converted into a modern art museum. I love the buildings of art museums as much if not more than the art inside of them. The rooms of this museum were so vast, and were filled with Warhol exhibits and paintings and sculptures. We finished there, got one last brotwurst on the street, picked up a pretzel in the train station, then headed to Alexanderplatz. We saw the world clock, then went back to our area. We were just drained of energy, so we found a café, then a park in our neighborhood. We had one last Asian meal (Vietnamese this time), then took our train to the airport. We got there early, We relaxed in the terminal. We got on the train. Tired. Incredible. Worth it.
Hamburg Banhof museum.
Warhol and others
Coolest exhibit...
World Clock in Alexanderplatz.
But I was so happy to be home at the end.
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